May 12th

Dear Family,

It was wonderful to be able to talk to all of you on Skype. My cheeks were killing me for a significatn time afterwards. Okay the things that happened this past week....

First of all this P-day. This p-day was the day when we clean the house really well. After that we had decided that we would go and try out the Yoga classes that they have here in 25 de Mayuol. WE ound out that they had classes because one day we were in the terminal waiting for a buis like we often do and there was a schedule of activities in the window and we came to findout that these activites are free activities that the city puts on for everyone in the city; they hire a professor and pay them and e3veryone or anyone can come free to the classes. Threre`s bachata, a dance, chocolate classes, sewing, crochet, a bunch of other stuff, but as I`m sure you guessed the activity that fell exactly on Monday our P-day was YOGA. SO I convinced my companion and we went! We were excited and we told the sister missionaries that t they wre sureloy missing out. So we went and it just so ahappened that the teacher had a birthday party to go to and so there wqas no classes that day.... It was kind of sad, but it`s okay, we`ll have another day, and I`ll let you know how it goes.

Okay, also, there was an excellent chain of events that happened the day before I called all of you, that Saturday. I had thought that Saturday was Mother`s Day, and so I had gotten everything ready to call you all and was there right at four o clock, but then I realiezed that it was tomorrow and not today.. I was sad, but I got over it. Okay, next the Sisters came and they were going to call their families, because they really had planned to talk to them the day before mother`s day, unlike me, and it just so happened that while I was hooking them up the computer, because we had to use a little laptop that had a webcam, instead of the old PC that the Church has, that I bumped the monitor and it fell on the floor.... I later came to find out when the sisters were cleaning up and putting everything back to gether that the monitor wastn`t working.... NO!!! Fetch, I had broken the good for nothing monitor. It turns on for a few seconds and you can see the desktop, but then it turns off. We`ll see how it turns out. Then later that night, we couldn`t find any investigators in their houses, and we didn`t have any money, and then we called lunch and they coulnd`t give us lunch so we were a bit discouraged, but later the sisters called us and helped us cheer up a bit, because they knew we were having a rough day. Well, the next tday everything went better because I got to talk to you all!! So it was worth it.

Okay, before I forget, I wanted to ask a few questions.

Lasagna. I`ve heard a few people talk about a Lasagna here and they like it, but I`ve yet to find someone who knows how to make it. Mother dearest, that`s when I thought of you... :) I always tell them that my mom makes the best lasagna that there is... So they all want to know how to make it. Would you happen to have a recipe for lasagna that I can share with them and my companion (it`s his favorite).

Second, collect calls in argentina. On the back of our debit cards if we want to call from outside of the united states to the automated customer service that we need to call collect (to inquire how much we have on our mission card because the ATM`s in this city don`t tell you). But the problem is I don`t know how to do it, especially in Argentina. Can you help me out with that? How does one make a collect call in Argentina?

Okay, so going back a month, when I was with Raul, I had my 9 month birthday in the mission. 9 months... and so I took pregnant pictures for obvious reasons...  Don`t ask, it was funnier at the time....

OKay, I have a recent convert here name is Jorgelina, and she`s 70. Until this point, I have been calling someone to go and get her and bring her to church, for that reason the fact that she really likes church, and the fact that she doesn`t have much else to do, she`s always there on Sunday, but this week our Branch Presidnet wisley counesled us that we help her start walking to chruch and so that`s what we did. We walked with her to church. Me and my companion had to consistently slow our usual very quick missionary pace to her Jorgelina Pace, because if we forgot and started thinking about other things we started to walk faster than her unconciously... But it was a nice walk, and even though she said she was tired afterwards, I think she enjoyed it.

Also, I bought something nice with the birthday money that you sent me! THanks so much for that! I was in the terminal in Neuquèn, waiting for  a bus and there was a store with a bunch of cool hand made stuff, so I went in and took a look a round and I saw this very cool sweater, I had been lacking on a sweater because I gave one of the two that I found to my companion who got whisked off to the south part of the mission becasue he had no sweater. Okay, so I saw this sweater and I thought hey! I could use one of those. When I found out that it was super-soft alpaca fur, the perfect v-neck kind that shows your tie, and just my size I bought it. I also bought myself somehting else that I^ve been missing, that is a tie clip. I`m doing just grand now.

Another day when we were in Cinco Saltos for the Zone Conference, that our Zone Leader randomly asked me to lead, we were waiting for a bus, and my companion who loves Avocados, suggested that we find and eat ourselves some avocados. So we found a fruit and vegetable joint, the which are much more common here, bought some avocados and bread and sat down to have ourselves some avocado and bread, my companions favorite food, but we realized that we had nothing to cut them with.... We thought about it look, looked for sharp objects, opened one with a clean stick, but finally it donned on me.

I took out my debit card and I cut them open, pulled out the pit, cubed them and squeezed it into the bread. It was a stroke of genious and it worked great.

Okay, now I`m out of time, but I love you all!

Elder Bradley Turek

P.S. Your question, ´´ Do families in Argentina have their elderly grandparents and relatives live with them as they grow old and age?´´

Sometimes... Especially here in 25 de Mayo, there is a lot of famililes that live close together, if not on the same property in different little houses. Everyone is family here, or if they aren`t family, they know each other. 

May 5th

Dear Family,

I loved hearing from you this week! I am still reading and responding to all of the birthday messages that you sent me, I will do my best to get them all read and responded to, but it will take time. Good things come to those who wait. :)

This week. This week... Oh! Yeah, this week we got a visit from a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy, Elder Viñas. He was awesome. We all came together and he talked to us as Missionaries and he also gave a talk to all of the Less Actives who had been through the temple.

It wasn´t that what he said was so great it was how powerful the words of Christ in the scriptures he quoted from memory were and how true they rang. It really made emphasis in the scripture 2 Nephi 32:3 to ´´feast upon the words of chirst´´ and ´´they will tell you all things what ye should do´´. That there is no such thing as ´´deep doctrine´´, but that there is´´ the only and true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is one God,without end. Amen. He made emphasis as well in the Atonement. That everything else is just an appendage to it.

He gave the example of a Pearl, and a Box.

The pearl is the Gospel. It´s really nice and so we try to make a really nice box for it to make the pearl even better. The box is all the rest, the fun programs, the nice things that make up Mormonism.

BUT all too often, we get so caught up in how nice and interesting the box is, that we forget all about the reason for the box. That is the Pearl. 

Don´t forget about the Pearl. ´´We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the PEARL are: 

• first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; 
• second, Repentance; 
• third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; 
• fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.´´

Alright Family, I´m out of time, but I love you all and I hope you all have a wonderful week. I´m excited to talk to you all Mother´s Day! 

Much love and blessings,

Elder Bradley Turek

April 28th - It´s a Christmas Miracle!

Dear Family,

Firstly and foremostly, thank you soooo much for all of the birthday emails (and thoughts and prayers). I really do apprecaite them all. I have read a few, but I will read and respond to the rest later. Again, thanks. 

Okay, none of you are going to believe what happened...

A Christmas Miracle happened!! You know that package that you sent me way back in November, five months ago, for Christmas?! Well, guess what I got this week on the day after my birthday?! That´s right that 5-month old Christmas Package!! Yay for Christmas Miracles! Haha, mom, you know me WAY too well. From the Peanut Butter with extra Omega-3 to the exact same deoderant that I like and happened to just run out,it was all wonderful. The candies and such are all a little hard or melted, but HEY! Candy! Also, you sent me like a million shirts. Did you think that I have been going shirtless for a while? Haha, no, but I thoroughly enjoyed them all and will put them to good use.

Okay, so that´s the big news for this week: Christmas-Birthday Miracle. 

My birthday was yesterday, and if you were wondering mom, I DID eat cake: cupcakes that is. The sister missionaries here in 25 de Mayo, were so kind to make me 6 delicious birthday cupcakes. They were most excellent, and I shared them with all of those who showed up to my Gospel Principles class on Sunday. Also, late saturday night, I was told that I would have to give a talk the next day. Haha, I wasn´t super worried, but when the time came, for me to give my talk the Branch President caught my attencion and gave me the ´´don´t worry about it we´re out of time´´ signal, and so I didn´t end up having to give a talk, yay for birthday miracles.

Fa, 20 years old. I´m old. (I know all of you more-than-20-somethings think I´m crazy) But it´s official, I´m no longer in the teens.

I´m very glad to hear that the gifts I sent were enjoyed.

I wish I had told you this last week, but for future reference, if you want to buy me something online that will get to me here in Argentina, ´´mercado libre´´ is the amazon of argentina. With that said, I will most certainly use the money you sent me to buy myself something nice this week. Like a wallet.

The other day we went to visit a less active lady. She is very old like 90, and hasn´t been to the chapel in years. We got a talking to her, and before we could say anything she let us know that God had authorized her to ´´take a rest´´ from going to church. What?... I could not believe it. Authorized? She really had convinced herself that God had authorized her to not go to the chapel. She´s crazy. She said ´´Yes of course´´ to the question ´´If the Lord himself was here and told you to go to church, what would you say´´. But when I said'' Well, we are representatives of Jesus Christ and as His representatives me make you the same invitation. What do you say?''  She replied ´´...no, I don´t say anything'' Yeah. Good times. That´s what pride does to you. When the sisters went back to visit her she ´´bajó la caña en mí´´ or ´´dropped cane on me´´. In other words she said I was crazy. 

Okay that´s really all of the time that I have.

I love you all,

Elder Bradley Turek

April 21st

Family,

How are all of you this week! I can´t believe it, but I didn´t realize that it was the week of Easter until Tuesday, the day after I wrote you all, so I´ll include a bit of easterness in this email.

This week being La Semana Santa, or The Holy Week, the last week of Jesus´s life, where he mercifully atoned for all of our sins in the garden, then shortly thereafter was given over to the Jews by his own apostle, innocently sentenced to be tortured by Crucifixion, flogged, spit upon, and then finally after suffering all, in the garden and on the cross, glorifying God, he gave what no one could take from him, his life.

Not only did he live, and die for us; what makes all the difference is that he came back and lives. I know that my Redeemer lives.

This week, we´ve been sharing that message; His good news. It´s been really great to be take advantage of the holiday season of Easter or Pascua (you know, like Pascal Lamb) as they call it here and be able to share this happy message with a lot of people. 

The church made this most-excellent video this week (one of the best, and definitely the best-designed video I think the church has ever made): 

easter.mormon.org 

and we´ve been going around sharing it, using it as our primary contact tactic, because everybody loves videos. Then after the video we have been giving people pictures of Christ and asking them to put a goal, or to make a resolve to start or start again doing something that shows their gratitude for all that He did for them. Whether it be making your prayers more meaningful, studying the scriptures like the personal revelation that they are, or learning more about Him and His life.

I would invite you to do the same. Watch it. Write something down. Be happier and better.

This Easter has been different for me because I was much more focused on the real reason for Easter. They have eggs here too, but not the same as ours. We dye eggs and hunt candy eggs, but they have chocolate eggs. I think I´ll buy one in a few days when the price goes down.

Things with my companion have gotten better. It´s been hard for a while because he is a very direct, and quiet person, who sometimes forgets to ask instead of tell. Such quietness, I am not used to, and sometimes has led me to believe that he has been mad at me, when he was just focusing on something. Then there are other times he really is mad at me and has said somethings that really hurt my feelings. I thought a lot about what he said to me and instead of staying hurt, I forgave him and tried to get better. I get to practice being humble.

By divine inspiration, God put something magical and wonderful in preach my gospel, the which you have all been invited by an apostle of God to get a copy of, called Companionship Inventory. Thanks to that, my companion and I are able to each week have a few moments to be honest with each other and patiently resolve problems. It´s the best.

Well, I don´t have much time, but in other news, I got bitten by a dog this week, the first time ever in my life, I´ll have you know, and it left me with only a ´´flesh wound´´, and luckily didn´t tear my pants, but boy it sure did hurt for a while. Also, my birthday is coming up this next Sunday. I´m turning 20, and that makes me old. How´d this happen? Also, happy birthday to all of you April-birthday folk!

Anyways...

I love you all. 

Elder Bradley Turek

P.S. Direct family, I hope you enjoyed your individual letters last week and that you enjoy as well this weeks email which I´ve tried to put more oomph into.

P.P.S. Did a package ever come for Kyla? If so, Kyla did you like what I got you even if it is late. There is also a gift that keeps on giving. The Friend, a magazine especially for excellent-easter-choir-singing-primary-kids like you should start coming with your name on it every month. Love you. 

April 14th

Dear Family,

How are you?!

Please enjoy this attached picture of my companion and I.

The rain stopped this week, finally. But the cold followed it. I took out my long PJs.

Missionary work is still missionary work. Sometimes nobody is home. Sometimes nobody is home all day like yesterday, but it´s okay, because there´s always another day to go at it again. Things are good here in Argentina. 

Thanks so much for your prayers and emails for me.

Remember: 

Life´s got instructions. Are you reading them?

Love you all,

Elder Bradley Turek